On the sands

I finally got to feel like Lawrence of Arabia for a moment.  We walked and played on sand dunes outside Jazan on an outing Aubrey organized for a group of us yesterday.

Walking away from camels

We stopped suddenly outside Jazan when Bryan spotted camels. Antony spoke with the camel driver in Arabic and we were allowed to come close and to take photos of these wonderful creatures.  They were much more interested in eating than in what we were doing.  Please click on the photo below for more photos.

Um Ali

I've loved this dessert, Um Ali, which is a bit like a bread and butter pudding, but sweeter, more creamy and altogether more delicious.

Heading home soon

I've had a good time here in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) but the thought of going home makes me happy too!  This afternoon, Thursday, there's a group bus trip to a mall followed by dinner together, organized by Aubrey.  Then I'll pack tomorrow morning for departure at night. (Photo taken yesterday at the polytechnic)

Pancakes

Bryan invited some of us to breakfast this morning, in his apartment very near ours.  Aubrey is on my left, with George and Antony (IT) on my right.  Bryan gave us scrambled eggs and great pancakes.  It's Thursday morning here, the beginning of the weekend in Saudi Arabia.

Teachers, trainers, colleagues

I've enjoyed observing teachers from other countries in their classes and getting to know some of them.  Here on the steps, as we wait for the bus to go home, there's Phil (Canada) on my right and Tristan (Wales) on my left. The blur in the photo is the effect of humidity. George took this photo, and many others - thanks, George.

George C

George C and I have been together throughout this trip.  I've learned a lot about electrical engineering from George. We're a good team in the kitchen, too.  Click on the photo above for more photos.

Laura H

 
Laura has a fairly gendered life here in Saudi Arabia.  She has her own transport to the polytechnic and meals are taken to her office.  People often pop in to see her in her office but she's not free to pop out and see others.  Tonight Laura and I went shopping together at the local supermarket.  I said I was happy to walk with her but I wouldn't tell her what to buy.   Despite the restrictions and all the hard work, Laura has been seen smiling on many occasions.

Photos from SESP Polytechnic, Baish

Please click on the photo to see more photos from SESP Polytechnic in Baish, in an online album.

There are photos in this collection of that contain images of text books.  I'll delete those ones after 24 hours since there may be copyright issues.

Visiting classes

I visited two classes this morning for observations at the new SESP polytechnic in Baish.  The teachers were welcoming and the trainees were very cheerful. I was able to talk with both teachers and trainees about their teaching and learning.

End of term, end of year in the Centre for Languages, Wintec

My greetings and warm wishes to colleagues and students in the Centre for Languages in this last week of term.  I've heard the DEAL posters were really good.  I wish I was there to see them and to congratulate you!  All the best everyone.  Have lots of fun after all the hard work.

Early morning trip to Baish

This morning we travelled to Baish, and went to the new SESP at Baish.  Laura left at 6.15am in a van and George and I joined the teachers at the compound - about 20 of them - travelling in two other vans, leaving at 6.30am.  The teachers are a cheerful group of men from UK, USA and NZ mainly.  As we drove along I watched the sun rise.  Most other passengers were dozing or listening to their MP3 players.  They've done this trip before!  At one point on the journey there's a sign saying 'Sandstorms in this area' - but all was calm.  The trip of around 70 km takes around 80 mins.

The time in Riyadh - 10 hours behind NZ

'Orange' and other Arabic words in English

There are many Arabic words in English.  They're amongst the most poetic, I think.  They include:

admiral, albatross, alchemy, alcohol, algebra, apricot, average, azure, camphor, carat, coffee, crimson, damask, elixir, gazelle, guitar, jasmine, lacquer, lemon, lime, magazine, muslin, nadir, orange, raquet, safari, serendipity (from the Arabic word for Sri Lanka, 'Serendib'), soda, sugar, talc, tamarind, tangerine, zenith, zero.

Late afternoon sun

At the end of the day, buildings of different colours glow in the sunlight.  This is Jazan, seen from the beach we went to today.

The Red Sea at last

This afternoon after visiting the Jazan power plant, George and I went to a store near our compound.  It was a prayer time and we had to wait for the store to open.  While we waited I chatted with the man in the top left photo, Adnan, from Yemen.  I mentioned to Adnan that I hoped to see the Red Sea before I left Jazan, whereupon he offered to take George and me in his car, after we'd all done our shopping.  So we stopped by Adnan's apartment to let him drop off groceries - he has a wife and three daughters - and then within five minutes we were looking at the Red Sea!  A kind man and a memorable afternoon.

Sun and moon

The call to worship was sounding out on all sides as I took these photos from our roof tonight.

From the roof, 204, Bin Jarbou compound

Earlier this evening, around 6pm, I went up stairs and opened the door to our roof.  The wall around the roof is quite high, so you can't sit in a chair and look over the city, as I'd hoped.  But you can peer through slots in the wall.

Bin Jarbou Compound, Jazan

We're in different apartments here at Bin Jarbou Housing.  I'm looking forward to going onto the roof tonight with a cup of tea.  You can guess this photo was taken seconds after the photo in the previous posting.  Before the milk warmed and the icecream melted.  The window on the right of the two upstairs is my room. Our door is on the side, half way down the alleyway.

Shopping in the middle of the day

We arrived in Jizan yesterday on a flight from Jeddah.  At least I have seen the Red Sea, as the plane banked and I looked down on blue water beneath a bright blue sky.  Aubrey, Bryan and Antony were at the airport to meet us.  We came to our compound in Jizan, where George and I were introduced to our apartment, 204.  Later, we went by bus with the teachers who live in the compound to a mall, where we did some shopping, especially for food - we're cooking for ourselves.

Today, Friday here, the end of the week, is a quiet day.  George and I went down a nearby lane and found a supermarket.  Having bought liquid yoghurt by mistake yesterday, I bought real milk today, as well as kitchen things for washing and drying dishes, fruit, bread, and cans of food.

Richard with bags of food and supplies for our kitchen in 204.  George took the photo quickly, knowing that two little tubs of icecream in one of the bags would be melting fast.

To Jazan

Tomorrow morning early we're going to Jizan by plane, from Jeddah. From there we'll go to Baish, to the new polytechnic.  We may not have a reliable internet connection. 

Today and yesterday,  the staff we met from the power plant #3 in Jeddah, such as Hussien Y here, were warm and welcoming, and answered all our questions patiently.

Colours, impressions - Jeddah

This is a link to some photos I took today as we travelled to and from a Power Plant, PP#3.  Please click on the photo here -

Last assignment in Riyadh

Today we went to a electrical  tranmission centre in Riyadh.  In the top right photo of the group of five, the men are, from left:  Jerome, Sulaiman, Fayez, and Kelvin B and Richard L.

برج الفيصلية The Al Faisaliyah Center

The Al Faisaliyah Center in Riyadh is a huge tower, 267 metres high and visible from a distance, just two minutes walk from our hotel.  So it's a good landmark for us.  There's a huge mall beside its base, full of gleaming stores with brand name items.

Checkpoints

In this photo you can see a checkpoint to a power station.  Here we have to stop and a friendly but no-nonsense soldier checks our passports at some length.  The soldier has an AK47 slung over his arm, which puts us on our best behaviour. There's a second checkpoint where we have to hand in our passports and my camera. The power plant staff have been welcoming and kind, despite being busy I'm sure.

Camelus dromedarius

The dromedary camel or Arabian camel.  They're quite a common sight as we speed along the roads outside Riyadh.  We saw herds of goats today, too.

More than balmy afternoon in Riyadh

This is winter in Saudi Arabia, apparently.  I've found the last two days head-splittingly, 'must keep hydrated' hot outside. In summer it can get into the 50's and even touch 60o, which doesn't bear thinking about.

George took this photo of Hosam from Riyadh SECTI and me waiting for taxi on a street in Riyadh.

Angela B

It was great to see EAL teacher/colleague Angela this evening. She and Laura spent the day together, with a trip into the desert in a four-wheel drive vehicle.  Angela looks very well and sends her warm greetings to everyone in our Centre for Languages.  

To DEAL A & B students, Discovery B

DEAL A students - warm wishes to all of you - I know that your reports were due in this week and you have plenty of work to do. 
Work hard and look after your tutors!
DEAL B students - all the best to you all for end of term work.
Discovery B - I enjoyed our classes very much and look forward to seeing you again.
Thinking of you all near the end of term.  Richard

Flowers are a fairly rare sight on this trip, but I saw a hotel worker tending these
 flowers carefully in a window box at the hotel in Dammah.

Al Khozama - “sweet desert flower”.

This is my view from Room 425, Hotel Al Khozama, Riyardh.  Laura, George and I are here at the hotel.  Kelvin B will join us again tomorrow.  Chris has gone to Baish, Jizan.  Laura will meet Angela B tomorrow morning and I hope I can see her, too, at the end of the day.

From the hotel brochure:

Last day in Dammam

This is Laura, Chris and I waiting for the car that took us to the airport in Dammam earlier today.  We've left Dammam and have now arrived in Riyadh.  

All in a day's work

We've had warm welcome wherever we've gone.  Yesterday at an electrical supply depot, the amiable man on the left, Abdulaziz, a foreman, showed us around gleaming electrical machinery.  The man in the photo on the right is an 'overhead technician', Ibrahim.  He climbs 20 to 30 metres up pylons, clad in a protective suit, and then works, and walks, on live cables!  When I spoke of his bravery,  he laughed and said - 'Oh, for me, it's like having a cup of tea! 

Ohm's law

Travelling and working with electrical engineer George, from Wintec, seen here, I've learned something about electrical supply, transmission and distribution, and protection.  George has taught me Ohm's Law, in its briefest expression -

I (Current) = V (Voltage) over R (Resistance).  I = V/R

My trick for remembering this and being able to reply to George's genial but searching questions at the dinner table is to picture the great West Indian cricketer, Viv Richards - Isaac Vivian Richards (leaving out Alexander!).

George is a great travelling and working companion on this trip.

Driver in Dammam - the Rawalpindi Express

Here I am with Kasif, the young man who drives us from our hotel to the worksite for the day.   A pleasant man, Kasif  has the ability to drive very rapidly, weaving between trucks, while texting. Coming from Rawalpindi in Pakistan himself, Kasif is an admirer of Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Akhtar, a very fast bowler known as 'the Rawalpindi Express'.

Mad dogs and New Zealanders

It's been another 'warm' day in Dammam. This is me in front of the administration building at the Eastern SECTI - Saudi Electrical Company Training Institute.  George and I went for a walk in the midday sun.

In my room, Room 115, at the Holiday Inn Khobar Corniche Hotel in Dammam.  The work is going well so far.  Mercifully, the air conditioning works well.

For the last two days, Chris, George and I have visited a power station about 80 km from Dammam.  The road is straight most of the way, alongside the sea.  Bahrein is not far away.  It's very hot outside, even though it's the cooler season.  One man told us today if you leave your hard hat outside for ten minutes in summer, you can pick it up and bend the sides.  Today we saw camels, about ten of them, steadily walking along the sands, without a person in sight.

I've just come back from a long day visiting a Power Station, about an hour's drive from Dammam.  As we drove along I caught my first glimpse of the Gulf waters.  Hello to colleagues in the Wintec Centre for Languages, who are starting the new week!

Our first day of work in Dammam.  Photo: waiting at 6.30am for the car that would take us to a training institute. 

'Abāyah

Tonight, Friday, Chris, Laura and I went by taxi to a splendid mall, a massive gleaming palace of light and style, where Laura bought an abaya that is just right.  Seen in the photos here of us standing outside our hotel.

عباية‎ ʿabāyah   The abaya is the cloak often worn by women in the Muslim world, especially around the Arabian peninsula and North Africa;  the head-dress is the 'niqab'.  In our visit to the mall tonight, it's clear that abaya vary, from the plain black garment, to those that have sparkles and designs.

Landed in Saudi Arabia, first morning

My first impression of Saudi Arabia from the plane, as the wing dipped and we turned for the final approach, was of sand dunes to the horizon, here and there dotted with single, lonely shrubs - 'boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away.' (Shelley).

We landed around 9am at King Fahd International Airport, in Dammam, in the East Province of Saudi Arabia. Neville Menezes of PINZ met us at the airport.  He arranged our transfer to the Holiday Inn Khobar Corniche, a hotel in Dammam

The heat as we got out of the two Ford cars that brought us to the hotel was furnace-like.

Dammam in the fifth largest city in Saudi Arabia.  

View from my hotel window, Room 115, Holiday Inn Khobar Corniche.  We're quite close to the sea, on the eastern coast, the Persian Gulf coast.

We had a brief stopover in Abu Dhabi, capital city of the United Arab Emirates.  Then we flew on Etihad flight EY 321 to Dammam.  The flight into Abu Dhabai had taken over 14 hours from Sydney.  This last flight was much shorter, just over an hour.  Photo of us below, in Abu Dhabi during the stopover.

Flights

We've arrived in Sydney.  'a little bleary, worse for wear and tear'  (Rolling Stones, Faraway Eyes).  Actually we're not too tired but the real flight is ahead of us - to Abu Dhabi, UAE, 14 hours 45 minutes.

 George arrived a few moments after this photo was taken and we boarded together.



A book is a garden carried in the pocket.  
       Proverb from Saudi Arabia


Leaving Aotearoa New Zealand on a warm spring day, 8 November 2012, at 1750 on  Etihad Airways Flight EY4423, with Laura, Chris and George, bound for Dammam, via Abu Dhabi.

To the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

المملكة العربية السعودية
al-Mamlakah al-‘Arabiyyah as-Su‘ūdiyyah

Richard Lawrence - travelling for Wintec - 8 November to 2 December 2012

Flying from New Zealand through Abu Dhabi to Dammam.

The mind is for seeing, the heart is for hearing.  Arabic proverb